Mexico: Supreme Court Says Anti Gay Slurs Are Not Protected Speech

Following in the footsteps of Canada’s high court last month, Mexico’s Supreme Court has ruled that anti-gay slurs are not protected speech. The Washington Blade reports:

The justices in their 3-2 ruling concluded the words “maricones” and “punal” two newspaper reporters from the state of Puebla used to criticize each others work are offensive and discriminatory. “It was determined that the expressions ‘maricones’ and ‘punal’ as they were used in this present case were not found to be protected under the Constitution,” it reads.

It can be dangerous to limit free speech, but some words have clearly been determined to be out of bounds by society (see the N word), and we agree that words like these (and the equivalent f word) should similarly be proscribed.